Traditionally, absorptive products comprising a liquid-permeable top sheet, a liquid-impermeable back sheet and the absorbent that intervenes between these sheets have been widely used for various purposes such as urine pads, incontinence products, diapers and the like. These absorptive products have tended to be thin in recent years, because the thickness of the absorbent has been reduced in order to eliminate stiffness and stickiness caused by the thickness of the absorbent.
A thin absorptive product allows a wearer to move easily, but at the same time it is prone to the problem of giving a feeling of discomfort to the wearer. This is due to its having an insufficient contact area with the discharging part of the wearer's body, resulting in the flowing of the liquid human waste along the wearer's body immediately after discharge. Also, thinness has been the cause of leakage when the product is used continuously over a long period of time.
In order to solve these problems, an attempt to improve close contact by adding a separately prepared bulky absorptive layer in the central region of the absorbent that constitutes the core is proposed. For example, in the PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN, Publication number: 2000-51269, an absorptive article which attempts to improve the fitting by laminating a narrow polymer sheet layer to the central part along the longitudinal direction of these pulp layers is disclosed.
A conventional technique such as the above, however, cannot eliminate the bulkiness of the absorbent because the voluminous flocculent pulp remains contained at a high content ratio in the absorbent layer which is the main absorbent component. Also, because its capability to retain absorbed fluid is insufficient, stickiness remains on the top sheet, resulting in giving an unpleasant feeling to the wearer in many cases.
Furthermore, because an absorbent sheet must be newly laminated in order to give a three-dimensional configuration to the center region, in addition to the increased cost of material, there is the problem of its leading to increased production costs.